'No se vende!' Defenders rally for Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument

LAS CRUCES — Tortugas Mountain, bearing a gigantic letter A commemorating the New Mexico State Aggies, is a familiar part of the landscape east of Las Cruces.

It sits on land that has seen ranching, mining and hunting. The peak itself is a sacred site for the Piro, Manso and Tiwa peoples: A traditional pilgrimage from Tortugas Pueblo to the top of the mountain occurs every December, a steep climb some devotees complete barefoot. The peak has served as a post for astronomical research and its sinewy trails have long led to vistas and places of retreat, drawing hikers and mountain bikers as well.

On Saturday it served as a backdrop for 100 demonstrators participating in a nationwide Day of Action for Public Lands, aiming to raise awareness of the various benefits of public lands, parks and national monuments.

Demonstrators lined up along Dripping Springs Road displaying signs and chanting, “No se vende – not for sale!” and other slogans. To the east, the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, declared a national monument by President Barack Obama in 2014, stood in silhouette.

“As far as communities that love their public lands, I don’t know if there’s one that loves it more than Doña Ana County,” Patrick Nolan, executive director of nonprofit Friends of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks, said during the demonstration. “Public lands are really kind of bipartisan. Folks across the west — Republicans, Democrats — are out there hiking it the same way.”

Another rally played out 350 miles north, where demonstrators gathered at the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument near Taos — sandwiched between the Rio Grande Gorge and views of Wheeler Peak to the east. Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., addressed a crowd of around 200 people, who held signs that said “not for sale” and “Hands Off!! Our Lands” as a few curious bighorn sheep milled about close by.

Concern for monuments like the Rio Grande del Norte and Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks have been heightened since reports emerged in April that the U.S. Department of the Interior was considering reducing the area and protected status of six national monuments — including the OMDP, which comprises nearly 500,000 acres.

Memories are still fresh here of a 2017 review of the monument, during President Donald Trump’s first term, which mobilized community support of the OMDP’s boundaries. At the same time, the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association and some area ranchers urged the administration to consider eliminating or shrinking the monument, citing uncertainty over how management plans would affect their operations. Ultimately, the monument was left alone.

But organizers and participants of Saturday’s demonstrations saw the new administration’s posture as a renewed threat to open these lands for mining or other development.

Delia Torres, a teacher at Centennial High School, which sits on the mesa below Tortugas Mountain, spoke of outdoor education and student activities around the OMDP, vowing “to make sure that we can protect these lands so that our students and their children and their children’s children are able to enjoy the lands just as I have been privileged to do.”

Locally, the monument is viewed by many as the linchpin of the local tourist and outdoor recreation economy, figuring into regional marketing campaigns and the branding of area businesses.

A 2023 economic impact study commissioned by the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce reported a cumulative economic impact of $234 million from the OMDP since its designation, including $35 million just in 2022. The study credited the monument for nearly tripling annual visitation to the area, with 612,000 counted in 2022 compared with 184,000 in 2012.

“This administration keeps talking about making sure people are empowered and that they’re able to support themselves,” state Sen. Carrie Hamblen, D-Las Cruces, told the Journal. Hamblen is also the Green Chamber’s president and CEO. “This is mobilizing our community to come together for this cause. It is demonstrating that our community is supportive of it, protective of it and they don’t want it messed with.”

Some participants looked beyond the economic arguments and spoke of the land’s intrinsic meaning for local identity, personal health and spiritual integrity.

“These mountains can offer much more than just finances to the community and commerce,” said Ruben Leyva, a Gila Apache who calls Las Cruces home. “Without places of refuge, where we can take a long weekend or take a hike or have ceremonies, we’re not going to be the well-balanced and centered community that we’ve always been.”

That reservoir of energy could be key to sustaining optimism that the new Trump administration will once again back away from the OMDP, state Rep. Nathan Small suggested. The Las Cruces Democrat was among several lawmakers and local officials who attended the demonstration.

Small pointed to the recent creation of a bipartisan congressional public lands caucus, which last month helped torpedo a House proposal to sell off federally-managed lands in Utah and Nevada, as signs that support for land protections crossed political boundaries even in the Trump era.

“Public lands are re-filling,” Small said. “Not only by coming out, but by standing up to protect them — it refills that hope every single time we do that. It re-inspires us to keep at it.”

The demonstration was limited to one hour on Saturday morning, as temperatures approached 90 degrees with little shade available. Ralliers cheered as many drivers passing by on Dripping Springs Road tapped their horns in presumed support — including one car with a Trump-Vance bumper sticker.